Refugee Festival

The Refugee Festival in Canicattini Bagni

Every year, on the night of Ferragosto, Piazza XX Settembre in Canicattini Bagni fills with music, voices, and flags for the Refugee Festival, an event that has turned this small municipality in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily, into a true capital of hospitality. The event stems from the commitment of the Municipal Administration, in collaboration with the SAI (Reception and Integration System) of the Ministry of the Interior and the social enterprises Passwork and La Pineta, which manage local reception facilities.

Music, peace, and integration

The festival celebrates music as a universal language capable of uniting people across borders. The stage features both nationally and internationally renowned artists alongside the young migrants and families welcomed into the city, in an evening that weaves together entertainment, testimonials, and civic engagement. Over the years, the festival has hosted major names from the Italian music scene, always carrying a message of peace directed at the Mediterranean and the entire world.

Eleven years of hospitality

Canicattini Bagni has been welcoming families and young migrants for over eleven years and has become a benchmark for best practices in integration. The Refugee Festival tells the story of this journey and shares it with the community as a popular, free festival open to everyone. The event is part of the Mediterranean Festival program, the grand summer season of Canicattini Bagni that brings concerts, theater, dance, traditions, and Iblean flavors to the city from July to September.

An Iblean village to discover

Attending the festival is also an opportunity to discover Canicattini Bagni, a village in the Iblean Mountains with its recently renovated stone historic center. The central square, the heart of city life, becomes the natural stage for one of the most popular evenings of the summer in south-east Sicily.